Flipped Tips - How Wide?

[Dan Landis]

Working on my trade bow, it is 65" t/t Hackberry.  Have it tillered to 28" and have put about 30 - 40 arrows through it.  Has some hand shock, not bad though.  I'm ready to start final shaping of handle and tips, how narrow can I go with the tips, they are 3/4" on top limb, and 7/8" on bottom limb.  I plan to add tip underlays, there were a few cracks that developed when bending the tips, they are only into the first ring on the belly side, the underlays will be insurance.  Plan to use cocobolo and osage for underlays......Dan

[Pat B]

You can get the tips down to 3/8" wide and 1/2" to 3/8" deep. You can saturate the cracks in the curves and may not need to add underlays unless that was your pkan anyway.It will add more physical weight which will add more hand shock.

[Dan Landis]

Pat, thanks for your help with this bow.  Your elm trade bow inspired me to flip the tips on this bow, been following your build a long.  I narrowed the tips to around 5/8" wide and ran another 30 arrows through her this evening, just reducing the width that little bit made a difference.   Hand shock is very minimal already.  Have not reduced the thickness of the tips at all yet, they are still about 7/8" thick, didn't trust reducing too much due to the cracks.  Will reducing thickness have an effect on hand shock?

[Pat B]

The more weight you can get off the tips the better but...!  Thick narrow tips are stronger than thin wide tips and generally weigh less. 1/2" thick is pretty thick but works well with a narrow width tip. The thickest part of the curve should be at the apex of the curve.
 By reducing thickness you should be eliminating or at least reducing the amount of splintered wood from the bending process.

[Dan Landis]

Pat, removed wood from the thickness on both limbs, they look a lot better now.  I also heated and adjusted the tip on the lower limb to fine tune the string alignment.  Need to let it rehydrate for awhile before stringing and shooting again.  Temperature is in mid 50's today and to be in low 60's tomorrow, it feels more humid so it shouldn't take too long till I can shoot her again.....Dan